SPIRITUAL EVOLUTIOM 
AMD THE BIBLE 







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Book 

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Spiritual Evolution and {Ke Bible 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 
AND THE BIBLE 



BY 



Edna F. Lee 




Hl\e Ckristopker Publishing House 
Boston, U. S. A. 






M-l 



Copyright 1922 
By The Christopher Publishing House 




IBP 



JUL 31 "22 

©CI.A68113 5 



Spiritual Evolution and the Bible 

CHAPTER I. 

"Ye are from beneath, I am from above, 
Ye are of this world, I am not of this world." 

Is it true that the Bible refutes all argu- 
ments in favor of Evolution, and that, as 
some say, the Darwinian hypothesis is an 
obstacle to a belief in God and likewise in 
Christ as the Son of God? Because man 
perceives a little more of the magnitude of 
God's vast power and has a more definite 
idea of the meaning of infinity and eternity 
of time, does he reverence the creator of the 
universe and the author and finisher of his 
being the less? Does he fail to acknowledge 
God's rule in his life because all the laws of 
nature reveal His methods? Surely any 
advance in fathoming the mysteries of the 
universe should be enlightenment to man. 
even though he realizes that the forces and 
processes of the material world do not por- 
tray God's spirit but are merely manifesta- 
tions of His power. We need not know the 
details of the theory of Evolution to believe 
in the general principle, for the world before 
us is saturated with proof of the struggle 
upward, and not only physically but spirit- 
ually. 

The Darwinian hypothesis deals only 



3 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

with the laws of physical life. The Bible 
gives us a wonderful view of similar laws 
applied to the spiritual realm, the soul of 
man, and when we get its vision we begin to 
grasp the meaning of eternal life or everlast- 
ing growth. The marvel is that the Bible 
does conform in every respect with our in- 
creasing knowledge, even though its formal 
utterances were worded by men who were 
limited by a more ignorant world. And that 
the world advances who can doubt? Re- 
member it was but a few centuries ago that 
Galileo was imprisoned for declaring that 
the earth moved round the sun, such a view 
being deemed sacrilegious. Is there really 
anything in the Bible to confute this truth or 
our present theory of the stellar universe 
with its countless suns and their probable 
unseen planets? Is our modern speculation 
incompatible with a conception of eternal 
life or does it not rather strengthen our be- 
lief in conscious existence, perhaps forever 
and ever? The time may come again when, 
as in an earlier day, man will associate the 
heavens with his religion — when it will be 
impossible to gaze at this panorama of God's 
handiwork and to study the laws governing 
His mighty work and fail to see the author. 
To him who looks, even the heavens, tho of 
all matter upon which a pair of human eyes 
can focus the most static, declare an ever- 
lasting evolution of worlds. 

Unless we admit spiritual evolution on 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 9 

some basis, how can we assert that Christ is 
different from others who enter and leave 
the world? The scientific man of the future, 
and all who love truth, will have a satisfac- 
tory explanation for the divinity of Christ, 
in harmony with all known law, and this 
whether we believe that Christ's spirit came 
to this world from afar, as proof that spirit 
can transcend great space and is not con- 
fined to this world alone, and that He left it 
again to go where we can not follow now 
but will follow hereafter, perhaps when an- 
other world has been prepared for us; or 
whether we conceive Christ to be a spiritual 
product of a race of prophets, embodying all 
truth in himself, and surrendering all for 
the life of the world, as He returns to the 
Father as the first begotten Son of God, 
which belief might harmonize with the faith 
of long ago. Indeed would not any conceiv- 
able assumption of the human mind, with 
the assurance that we will some day be like 
Him, conform to a principle of evolutionary 
growth, slow process though it be? 

Even though admitting the most ex- 
treme claim for the Divinity of Christ, we 
cannot "believe" on Him as the "Son of 
God" without realizing our own relationship 
to the Father. "As many as received Him, 
to them gave He power to become the sons 
of God." Unless we recognize the spirit of 
God within ourselves, and as manifested in 
the "least of these His little ones" we surely 



10 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

could not believe the Master's claims if He 
stood before us today. 

The earliest followers of Christ, as the 
latest, have been impelled to concede that he 
was of a higher spiritual order than they, yet 
our logic often fails to convince because w r e 
have stressed the physical rather than the 
spiritual aspect of his birth and death, and 
have not grasped the laws of spiritual 
growth it was his mission to reveal. The 
Holy Ghost is spirit and does not conceive 
flesh, since "that which is born of the flesh 
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit 
is spirit." Christ's spirit came from the 
Father and returned to the Father. The 
Bible nowhere states that a mortal life fol- 
lows the same direct course. Christ said: 
"No man hath ascended up to Heaven but 
He that came down from Heaven." "Ye are 
from beneath, I am from above: ye are of 
this world, I am not of this world." To 
His disciples He said: "Whither I go ye can- 
not come now but ye shall follow me after- 
ward." And John the Baptist testified of 
Him: "He that cometh from above is above 
all * * * for God giveth not the spirit by 
measure unto Him." The spirit of God then 
is given to men by measure, as likewise im- 
plied by Christ's statement that "the law and 
the prophets were until John, since then the 
kingdom of God is preached and every man 
presseth into it." 

In fact, in all His message can we not 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE H 

see that Christ presented a law of individual 
spiritual attainment on this planet and that 
all Bible prophecy conforms to it? There is 
little in the Bible about the life beyond this 
world but much about the glory of the life 
which all children of God are to share here. 
The Kingdom of Heaven on earth, which 
Christ took such pains to impart as the 
Father's plan for the world, and the judg- 
ment of the world, which will disclose the 
attitude of every soul in his relationship to 
God and his fellow man, are clear doctrines 
w r hen one ascertains that Christ expounded 
the law by which each individual soul may 
grow, through "natural selection" in the 
realm of spirit, step by step, even from one 
incarnation to another, until the world is 
ready for the great day of the kingdom. 
The law of the "survival of the fittest" in the 
physical realm may seem ruthless, but nec- 
essary to attain physical perfection. One 
similar, but applying to the spiritual do- 
main, is clearly set forth in the word of old, 
whereby all souls who do not measure up to 
the standard set, must in some way be cast 
into a region of their own, that they may not 
longer retard the growth of those struggling 
upward. 

To Adam, as to every man since, God 
gave a moral consciousness of responsibility 
when He endowed him with His own attri- 
butes of reason and will by which he was 
left to choose his course; yet his lower na- 



12 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

ture conquered over his higher. Does not 
every man feel the urge of both past and 
future and fall short of attaining his high- 
est ideal in one life term? When man first 
realized that he failed to reach the goal set 
for him, he attempted to appease an angry 
God by offering atonement in the form of 
sacrifices, but Christ's life and death set a 
different standard for overcoming human 
f railities. Christ brought God's demand for a 
greater sacrifice — ever the dearest of all pos- 
sessions — man's individual, personal, present 
life, willingly surrendered that a higher might 
be evolved. "He that would find his life must 
lose it" is a law that may be truly applied 
to the spiritual or physical life, the individ- 
ual or society en masse and has been dem- 
onstrated by the march of world events 
from the dawn of day for man, and will 
doubtless be the essential law for admission 
to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is true that 
all man made laws bind us to the past. 
When Paul says: 'The strength of sin is the 
law" might he not have said: "The strength 
of sin is the past?" And is not this so be- 
cause man is constantly growing? But the 
Bible promises that every restriction to spir- 
itual freedom will be overcome here on 
earth and the time will come when love 
alone will fulfill the law. The Apocalypse 
prophesies that man will finally win what 
he lost in the Garden of Eden, and even have 
access to the tree of life. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 13 

The different conceptions of God ex- 
pressed in the Old and the New Testaments 
surely reveal spiritual growth. Even the 
conception of Heaven changes with Christ's 
assurance that there will be a Kingdom of 
Heaven on this earth, so long despised as an 
inferior place of abode. Should not our 
idea of heaven be further enlarged from the 
ancient notion of a distant throne from 
which proceeds all rule and authority (and 
the Bible writers often used the word 
"heaven" as a symbol for power and author- 
ity) to the meaning Christ gave us of the 
Heaven Immanent, a spiritual realm on this 
planet within the soul of man himself? 

Yes, it seems that all the message 
breathes Evolution, not growth toward phy- 
sical perfection, though that is included, but 
the law of life by which we are born into 
the kingdom, and continue to grow by feed- 
ing on the manna sent from God to this 
hungry world. Let us not think we have 
exhausted the supply. Christ used the phys- 
ical laws which His hearers could compre- 
hend to explain the workings of God's 
spiritual laws and thereby revealed the strik- 
ing similarity of all law. In his conversa- 
tion with Nicodemus about being born again, 
we have found a spiritual truth doubtless 
applicable to the law of spirit, nevertheless, 
it seems that we might accept more literally 
than we have been wont to do Christ's words 
when he insisted that we must "be born 



14 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

again," that we must be born into the king- 
dom of heaven, receive it "as a little child" 
"for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He 
said He was speaking of earthly things when 
he stated, "That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is 
spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth 
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither 
it goeth; so is every one born of the spirit." 
Man has been able to fathom what in that 
day was a mystery of physical geography 
and it is not beyond reason to suppose that 
he may yet understand the law by which his 
spirit may leave one body and be resurrected 
in another. When the books are opened 
man may read not only one page at a time 
with no reference to that preceding and that 
following but the story of his soul growth 
through the ages. Christ says: "there is 
nothing covered that shall not be revealed," 
and our belief in evolutionary growth gives 
us the assurance that all the beautiful Bibli- 
cal promises will be fulfilled. 



CHAPTER II. 

"It is the spirit which quickeneth, the 
flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I 
speak unto you, they are spirit and they are 
life." 

Man craves an adequate and tangible 
answer to the question of soul life both now 
and after death. The orthodox church, in 
stressing the Kingdom of God in this world 
and in steering clear of the metaphysical, 
appears to have lost sight of the fact that 
man has an immortal soul. But that death 
does not end all, and indeed that birth is not 
the beginning of a soul's existence, has furn- 
ished the only satisfactory explanation of 
life to the children of men; though the 
varied forms of expressing the truth have 
been manifold, and each has become obso- 
lete with the peculiar form of civilization 
which it typifies. To the age old question: 
"If a man die shall he live again?" we find 
the ancient answer: "He shall live and not 
die," and an "everlasting yea" has been 
echoed in the soul of man ever since. The 
Old Testament is filled with the beautiful 
truth that we are living in eternity now and 
do not leave it. "I shall dwell in the house 
of the Lord forever." 

The world of spirit has ever eluded man's 
investigation, but in its final analysis the 



16 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

physical world is likewise an unsolved mys- 
tery, yet man in his boldness has learned to 
understand its laws and powers, at least. 
Let us fear no knowledge, even experiment- 
al, which might lead to a more thorough 
realization of spiritual truth, but make bold 
to examine the soul of man and analyze it 
as we do other forces of nature. It would 
appear to-day that men are investigating 
everything in the universe excepting their 
own souls. The western civilisation has 
been materialistic, with none of the meta- 
physical imaginings of the older eastern na- 
tions, but with Palestine, the mother of our 
religion, lying at the junction of the east 
and the west, the past and the future, hold- 
ing in reserve all truth which had been dis- 
covered and prophecying that which was to 
come, we might hope for a larger vision to- 
day. While the influential world is in prac- 
tice denying the existence of soul, even 
though some are advancing a theory of the 
non-existence of matter, wherein lies truth? 
Is there anything in the Word of God 
or in the creation which is opened as a book 
before our eyes which would lead us to 
suppose that spirit long exists without its 
physical manifestation? Even the word 
which goes forth as a spirit must become 
flesh in order to live. Or what reason have 
we to doubt the reality of matter while 
accepting this dressing for the soul? It is 
just as unscientific to deny the existence of 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 17 

one as it is of the other. True, we have 
reason to believe that spirit is creator, mas- 
ter, and nature but the effect, and a variable 
and fleeting circumstance. But spirit and 
form are inseparable. Neither can exist 
without the other. One is always cause and 
the other effect. Those who disclaim the 
existence of either in this universe might be 
likened to a man blind in one eye, who 
apparently sees as much as the rest of us, 
but whose vision is nevertheless limited. 
Man is a child of Mother Earth and Heavenly 
Father. The earthly seed must be impreg- 
nated with the spirit of God to form life. 
Every living and growing atom of matter on 
this terrestrial ball has been given its breath 
of life from the source of spirit. 

We must be persuaded that the spirit is 
manifested only during life, its opportunity 
for growth. Death bears the fruit of life 
as a seed to be replanted. The body dies 
and "profiteth nothing" when the spirit 
leaves it; but the soul is "quickened," given 
new life, or is "born again," with another 
physical manifestation. Paul, evidently 
enlarging upon Christ's reference to the 
grain of wheat, explains to those early 
Christians who asked how the dead are 
raised and with what body they come "that 
which thou sowest is not quickened except 
it die," and said likewise that each seed is 
given a body of its own according to God's 
law. Both Christ and Paul make it clear 



18 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

that what man calls death is merely a sur- 
render to new life in other soil. The seed 
we may infer to be the spiritual fruit of the 
soul at death. 

Christ touched upon the psychic similar- 
ity between death and sleep. "Our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth," and it appears that no 
record was given of his experiences during 
these four days in what some term the 
"spirit world." It was evidently oblivion to 
him as is perfect sleep to any of us, when 
body and soul have no apparent connection. 
Unless the wanderings of the soul make an 
impression on the brain, or physical machine 
of both soul and body and connecting link 
between them, there is no conscious exist- 
ence. We can hardly doubt a spirit world, a 
cosmic consciousness or whatever we choose 
to call it, in which a soul may wander to 
regions afar when the objective mind is 
dormant, whether in what we call death, or 
in sleep, or when the mind is hypnotized, or 
even when awake but far from the body in 
spirit; but all communications must surely 
be received by mortal mind; and our 
dreams, visions, and apparitions are but an 
image made upon the brain of that which 
lies deep within our own immortal souls, 
which are not confined to time or space, 
Thus perhaps is prophesy explained as well 
as much which the psycho-analysts to-day 
might find within the soul but cannot ex- 
plain by the present life. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 19 

We may suppose that when the body dies 
all memory of the past is lost with the death 
of mortal mind, and that the soul is obliged 
to make its impression on a new physical 
instrument. It is possible for God to bring 
the soul severed from the body back to the 
same habitation but this is not the law He 
has established in the world. He evidently 
deems it wiser to give it a fresh start in a 
new environment. Perhaps man's develop- 
ment could be marvellously hastened if in- 
dividual life terms could be lengthened, for 
naturally some time must be lost with every 
new adjustment. The morning and evening 
of life send rays of light into the yesterday 
and the to-morrow, but at noon-day man is 
in his glory, in full possession of his powers. 

May we not say there is centering in 
every personality a swarm of spirits, just 
as we admit that every body is composed of 
innumerable atoms? During life, the soul 
as the body, is undergoing a constant though 
almost imperceptible transition; but with 
death this swarm of spirits, or the soul they 
represent, leaves the body intact, and seeks 
a new home, an environment where condi- 
tions promise the kind of life for which it 
has a special affinity. We have never 
thought of looking for a law by which a 
soul seeks its own level in the vast world 
sphere, but if we should, we might find the 
words of Christ enlightening. His doctrine 
that those who kept his saying would never 



20 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

see death might be confirmed scientific. 
Death is loss, life is growth. Though growth 
is from within outward, because dependent 
upon pre-existing conditions, it must be 
brought about by the embodiment of that 
which is external. When we have taken 
unto ourselves new spiritual concepts they 
become part of us by expression and mani- 
festation in life. Christ called himself the 
bread sent from heaven whereof a man 
might eat and never die. Though spirits not 
called into action may lie dormant or in 
time be crowded out of consciousness by the 
influx of new spirits every soul keeps taking 
unto itself, yet the tendency must be to hold 
fast the truth once gained, to use it for nour- 
ishment and growth so that what is once 
acquired is never lost. Christ's prayers 
were most especially for them whom he said 
the Father had given him and to whom he 
said: "If ye continue in my word ye shall 
know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free." So long as we hold fast each immor- 
tal truth the light of life brings us we con- 
tinue in the way everlasting. 

The universe is full of spirits, angels, 
messengers of God which we may entertain 
at will and "quicken" into life. Every 
word uttered, as every thought back of it 
and every act to which it leads, carries its 
own spirit which leaves its impress forever. 
"Every idle word that men shall speak they 
shall give an account thereof." Words are 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 21 

indeed eternal, omnipotent, the power by 
which man creates and sends forth vibra- 
tions which might be likened unto the power 
whereby God created a world or a universe. 
If no atom of matter in the universe is ever 
lost, neither is one iota of force or spirit. 
All knowledge, all power, has been set into 
vibration by God, but man by his own initia- 
tive, involving infinite volitional effort, must 
reach and strive for every acquisition, and 
invariably sacrifice the old to gain the newer 
and higher blessing. Thus we may believe 
that though the natural body, the gift of 
physical life, is transmitted by heredity, the 
spirit itself, the sub-conscious and subjec- 
tive mind, finds its abode by a transmission 
of spirit; and through the laws of growth, 
both the physical and spiritual life may be 
transmuted to a higher plane of life. Thus 
do these laws, each having a specific func- 
tion of its own, contribute to the evolution 
of soul as of body. 

Christ used these natural and universal 
laws to illustrate the Fathers plan for world 
evolution and the final establishment of the 
Kingdom. "For as the Father raiseth up the 
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son 
of Man quickeneth whom he will;" and he 
said likewise that the Father "hath given 
him authority to execute judgment also." 
The judgment day in which the sheep will 
be separated from the goats, the wheat from 
the tares, the just from the unjust, could be 



22 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

ushered in at any time and every man by 
his attitude toward his fellow man, his 
mark in the forehead revealing his relation 
to God the Father and Christ his Son, would 
lav bare his soul since time immemorial, and 
the world would be judged, past as well as 
present. When the new kingdom is estab- 
lished, by God's law only those prepared for 
it can enter, or be "born" into it. "Marvel 
not at this, for the hour is coming, in the 
which all that are in the graves shall hear 
his voice and shall come forth; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of 
life; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation." 



CHAPTER III. 

"Fear not them which kill the body but 
are not able to kill the soul." 

The body and the soul are distinct enti- 
ties, each having its separate source and 
destiny. Since time immemorial man has 
held this faith, the Bible confirms it from 
cover to cover, and Christ states the fact 
with positive assurance and proves it by his 
life. Because spiritual things must be spir- 
itually discerned and it has been the con- 
£ Census of opinion in all ages and in all states 
of civilization, in every century and nation 
whose records have been turned to history, 
that man is immortal, is it not certain proof 
of the existence of the spirit within the 
house that it discerns this truth for itself? 

Christ undoubtedly knew the whence and 
whither of the soul, but he seems to have 
expected that much of the truth should have 
been understood by students of the ancient 
law. To Nicodemus he said: "Art thou a 
master of Israel and knoweth not these 
things?," Mayhap primitive man, though 
indeed seeing through a glass darker than 
ours, perceived in his own childish way a 
self-evident truth from the God of nature 
which civilized man has forgotten. 

One wonders whether historical Chris- 
itanity, which has depended for its life upon 



24 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

the institutions of the material world, ho 
deflected from the original meaning of the 
word. Do we preach the doctrine of the 
soul as the great Teacher presented it, or 
has the leaven of the Pharisees, of which 
Christ warned, usurped the place of the 
leaven of God in the soul, since the soul of 
man has never had prior right in this world? 
That we do not spiritually discern all that 
Christ teaches of this subject is evident from 
the inefiicacy of the Church's interpretation 
to-day. Christ said: "Yet a little while is 
the light with you. Walk while you have 
the light lest darkness come upon you: for 
he that walketh in darkness knoweth not 
whither he goeth." The disciples were ad- 
mittedly puzzled over the question of the 
future life, and when the prince of this 
world came, man must have lost his way in 
the darkness and does not yet see "whither* 
he is going. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees, or the 
parties of conservatism and radicalism, are 
as old as history — one holding stubbornly 
to the old when all reason for its existence 
is past, the other attempting to break down 
false barriers and innovating, not the per- 
fect, but a new ideal, only partially true, the 
dross of which must later be discarded. 
Every individual, as every state and nation, 
has within its own province these warring 
and antagonistic elements, disputing the 
possession of its territory. The iconoclasts 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 25 

are the pioneers who clear the field so that 
better building is possible, and the fact that 
in proclaiming unpopular truth they are will- 
ing martyrs is evidence that the human be- 
ing is greater than his physical existence. 
The law protects while it binds us all and it 
is to every man's temporal interest to accept 
his fate with its present security rather than 
to struggle for an uncertain liberty. But 
Christ said: "He that would find his life 
must lose it," and there have always been 
those divinely inspired to make the sacrifice. 

Conservatism has ever held the fort and 
can defend itself against all attacks, while 
reform must gather its forces slowly and 
painfully, but if its motives are true it is 
sure to win. To-day's innovation becomes 
to-morrow's conservation, and all that is 
just in one order is bound to be the founda- 
tion of the next. Christ did not condemn 
the law of the Pharisees, but their own 
spiritual blindness, due to selfish interests, 
which led them to hold the letter of the law 
without the spirit which would lead to new 
truth. It was the Pharisees who should have 
known Christ since they professed all knowl- 
edge of the Father; and it was their hypo- 
crisy, not their ignorance, which condemned 
them, for Christ said: "Every man that hath 
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh 
unto me." 

The utterances of Christ are not arbi- 
trary, but are in perfect accord with the 



26 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

absolute basic principles of existence. His 
teachings are highly systematic, scientific, 
and psychologically true. He who fears that 
the light of science will conflict with religious 
truth lacks faith in the principles upon which 
his religion is based. Faith is not blind, but 
is built upon a fast and enduring intellectual 
belief in known law; and it is necessary for 
each individual and for every age to have a 
faith based on a revelation of its own and 
not on the tradition of the past. Instead of 
attempting to adjust old beliefs to the ever 
advancing world of known fact, certain 
phases of religious belief which an ignorant 
world accepted have been thrust on a more 
enlightened people, while some highly sci- 
entific truths clearly set forth by Christ have 
been ignored. 

Science, philosophy and religion are man's 
best attempts to explore the ultimate facts 
of existence and to explain the divine truths 
of God as manifested in His universe. They 
should be so linked in unity as to produce a 
perfect system, and there can be no convinc- 
ing reason for accepting any of their claims 
which does not contribute to the whole realm 
of knowledge. If the truth without flaw or 
deficiency could be known, it would doubt- 
less be seen that the claims of science and 
religion do not conflict, but that the precepts 
which Christ gave are unchangeable, immut- 
able, perfect laws of God so expressed that 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 27 

no dogma or set formula conceived by 
growing spirits can long hold them. 

When we lose our timidity about explor- 
ing the domain of the soul we may discover 
that ethics and morality are exact sciences 
and bear logical scrutiny as well as the law i 
of the material world. We may discover 
cause and effect in the spiritual realm just 
as we have of unseen physical forces like 
magnetism, electricity, and radium, the real 
properties of which scientists find it difficult 
to define. 

All our knowledge, including our religion, 
is merely experimental. Perhaps every faith 
from time immemorial has contained some 
grain of truth, but with inspection we find 
that the words of Christ hold all spiritual 
truth, from the fundamental doctrine of the 
re-incarnation of the soul on this earth, 
which was prevalent in the childhood of the 
race, likewise the hope of a world beyond 
this for those who ''endure unto the end" 
here, to the newest doctrines of our dav 
expressed in Christian Science and kindred 
thought stressing the Immanence of God. 

Mrs. Eddy writes: "The basic error is 
mortal mind." It seems this might be more 
simply and correctly stated "The basic error 
is in mortal mind." Neither mortal mind 
nor the physical body is to be condemned, 
since both are gifts of God with a divine 
purpose and use. Evil in mortal mind is 
doubtless a negative state of thought which, 



28 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

as ignorance may be replaced by knowledge, 
will likewise disappear with spiritual growth 
and divine intelligence. The good old book 
as well as Mrs. Eddy teaches that only good 
is absolute and final, and that as error is cast 
out perfection takes its place. Or perhaps 
the truth is better stated vica-versa. Christ 
said: "Nothing from without a man can 
defile a man." Evil must exist in mortal 
mind to be sin. Poor environment gives 
opportunity for the expression of the evil 
tendencies within, and so keeps them alive; 
but if they have already been eradicated, or 
if we will to ignore them, environment can- 
not influence us for ill. A perfect environ- 
ment however, would finally replace all evil 
with good. 

Christ's word conforms with all Bible 
prophecy in predicting the perfection of 
man on earth, and while the soul of man 
has proven its worth by longing for a nobler 
sphere of endeavor, the time must surely 
come when it will be seen that man must 
win for himself the conditions which can 
make this world a paradise. This process 
may seem slow and laborious, and God's 
timepiece too high for our vision, but we 
may possess our souls in peace and patience 
so long as we know we are on the upward 
way. Let us keep Christ's love and tolera- 
tion, which was not for evil and error, but 
for our brother groping his way through 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 29 

the darkness in his search for the stairway 
to heaven. 

Should not soul growth be the end and 
aim of life? "For what doth it profit a man 
if he gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul? Or what can a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" 



CHAPTER IV. 

"I came that ye, having life, might have 
it more abundantly." "To him that hath 
shall be given, and he shall have more 
abundantly." 

In history, as in nature and every expres- 
sion of lif e, we see an unending repetition of 
laws as exact as those of science. The Bible 
in prophesying the destruction of the Jewish 
nation and explaining the causes, thereby 
foretold the history of every nation since, 
and even pointed out the similarity between 
that event and those latter days when all 
that had been prophecied should be ful- 
filled, when God's kingdom should be estab- 
lished on earth, and all principalities and 
powers would yield to the spirit of God in 
Christ. Though Israel as a nation was pun- 
ished and lost to the further making of 
history, she was the mother spiritually of 
all Christendom and we have no doubt will 
yet fulfill the prophecy that "In thee shall all 
the famihes of the earth be blessed." Much 
is foretold of "the House of Israel" that is 
yet to come to pass, and in spite of the dark 
hour before the dawn those who look may 
catch faint glimmering streaks of light upon 
the horizon. 

As the spirit creates its physical mani- 
festation, so every achievement in the mate- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 31 

rial and historical world has first been born 
in the soul of man. Before it was proven 
that the world was round, man dreamed or 
conceived it to be so, and in attempting to 
verify his faith found a new world. Our 
prayers are not answered before they are 
expressed. Was not Christ sent to that 
nation which for centuries had prayed the 
Father for a deliverer, with faith believing 
this in His power to grant? That God sent 
His son according to His own laws instead 
of in compliance with worldly standards 
made it difficult for these people to see that 
he was an answer to their own prayers. Our 
prayers, our strivings and longings are 
gratified, but always according to God's law, 
and it is only when our will is His will that 
we can recognize the answer. We must 
acknowledge the superiority of His will and 
desire what is in accord with it to receive 
what is best for us. God never super-im- 
poses His will on us and is too wise to force 
development. When God respects our weak 
human wills to this extent how much more 
should we esteem each other's. He appar- 
ently does not wish us to domineer any other 
intelligence any more than He expects us to 
surrender our own mental control to an- 
other except consciously and willingly. 
Thus are we all products of our own volition. 
Nevertheless God works through human 
instrumentalities and by recognizing the 
superiority of His will the human may be- 



32 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

come the medium of the divine, and in har- 
mony with the Divine plan. In thus allow- 
ing God to work through us, we may ask 
what we will and it shall be granted us. Yes, 
the prayer of faith is a force and a power, 
if only because we embody our ideals and 
cause to bring about the realization of our 
own desires. If all who have prayed "Thy 
kingdom come, Thy will be done" had 
prayed in spirit and in truth, the millennium 
or world wide kingdom would have been in 
sight long ago. Though we build slowly and 
all prayers are not answered in one life term 
let us beware of our prayers, our hopes, our 
strivings. There are no accidents; every- 
thing that comes into life is from the Father 
in exact obedience to the laws that govern 
our existence. God is just and everyone 
gets his just deserts and finally the heaven 
or hell to which his own choice has led him. 
Paul says: "Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap;" and Christ: "With what 
measure ye meet it shall be measured to 
you again." The law of compensation is 
as exact as the law of gravity. 

Every step up has one below it and only 
by stepping firmly on one are we in position 
for the next. Christ came to the people 
whose fundamental knowledge of the Father 
was sound, yet it was only those individuals 
who had in them the spiritual fruits of the 
old law who where chosen as special soil for 



SPIRITUAL EVOLLTK -N AND THE BIBLE 33 

the new germ of life. Perhaps this is the 
reason why Christ wished his disciples to 
tarry in Jerusalem and to teach the Jews 
first and afterwards the Gentiles. There were 
still some of the ancient saints who had 
not heard the message — Paul, the Moses of 
the law, was reached later we remember. 

The New Testament presents an esoteric 
Christianity. Christ did not think of asking 
the Father to change the immutable laws by 
which He governs the universe, nor of ac- 
cusing Him as some men do, because this 
world is not a perfected creation, and they 
enjoying the fruits thereof. Christ referred 
many times to the fact that not all were 
capable of hearing his message. "Why do 
ye not understand my speech? Even because 
ye cannot hear my word." "If God were 
your Father ye would love me." "He that 
is of God heareth God's words." He speaks 
of giving eternal life to as many as the 
Father has given him, and in speaking of 
the sheep which know his voice he says: 
"And they shall never perish, neither shall 
any man pluck them out of my hand." Also 
in John he says he manifested the Father 
unto the men which God gave him out of 
the world and prayed for them: "Holy 
Father, keep through thine own name those 
whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one, as we are." We, no more than they, 
can accept Christ until we see God the crea- 
tor of all. After acknowledging the all- 



34 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

powerful transcendant God we are prepared 
for the higher conception of God Immanent 
in Christ and in us. 

We see that the doctrine of predestina- 
tion has its root in the words of Christ, lay- 
ing the foundation for the now old-fashioned 
belief that the ills of life as well as the good 
are visitations of providence. After all, man 
merely changes his forms of expressing un- 
changeable truths. Our newer cults will tell 
us that we have no enemies and that there 
is no evil, but that all men and all circum- 
stances are but our teachers, which is doubt- 
less true — when we put the right perspective 
on the thought. 

It was a favorite opinion of the Christian 
fathers, as of the Jews and even the ancient 
heathen races, that every person is guarded 
by a particular angel who directs and con- 
trols his acts. We have not the same spirit- 
ual concepts to-day, but in our more prac- 
tical and scientific terms may we not have 
in mind the same idea when we speak of 
the sub-conscious mind, which is more pow- 
erful than the conscious in directing our 
thoughts, feelings, and actions? This seems 
to be a particularly apt comparison if the 
term implies the composite soul, evolved 
from all past experiences. It is natural of 
course to live in the present. We spend 
little time in recalling even the most vivid 
scenes of our past life or those most vitally 
affecting us individually. In time they be- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 35 

come a part of our sub-conscious life as 
does much more that we have totally for- 
gotten. Yet all that we have experienced is 
part of our being and predetermines our 
present existence, likewise our decision to- 
day affects our future. Just so may we be- 
lieve that every soul is a product of its own 
particular experiences since the beginning 
of time and contains its own possibilities of 
future development. Thus may be solved 
the mystery of individuality. 

Christ gives us hope, and indeed a cer- 
tain knowledge, of the integrity of each 
individual soul as an entity in the cosmic 
consciousness or universal mind of which 
the psychologists to-day speak. When He 
said there were those before him who would 
never taste death till his coming again, may 
he not have meant that these souls would 
hold the distinguishing characteristics which 
make them what they are — that while they 
might add new spiritual elements, the old 
would not be lost? If we knew enough, we 
could likely state with as much assurance 
as Christ that "before Abraham was," or any 
specialized character bound to time and 
place, "I am." After his assertion that "God 
is not the God of the dead but of the living" 
perhaps we could find a more literal mean- 
ing than the theologians have given us for 
the statement that Abraham saw his day and 
was glad. He certainly stated clearly enough 
for all to comprehend that those before him 



36 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

would be in the world when the kingdom 
on earth should be established, and that after 
his message had been carried to the utter- 
most parts of the world and all had heard 
the truth, there would be a universal judg- 
ment day. Practically all his parables deal 
with the ushering in of the kingdom as of 
vital and personal interest to those before 
him. 

While we are taught that of those to 
whom much is given shall much be required, 
we are also told, according to the parable of 
the laborers, that those who worked in the 
vineyard the last hour only receive the same 
reward as those bearing the heat and burden 
of the day; also that some of the last shall 
be first. Many may have been growing, 
expanding, needing but the vital touch of 
truth in Christ, which if accepted in time 
will cause them to choose the side of right- 
eousness in that great day of decision. For 
we cannot doubt but that our individual 
choice will decide our fate, that our sub- 
conscious and subjective minds will reveal 
our attitude toward the new kingdom. Each 
soul will be weighed in the balance to see 
on which side he belongs. Before the es- 
tablishment of the kingdom the evil in the 
world outweighs the good, but when the 
world has taken unto itself enough of good, 
of knowledge, of God's wisdom and of 
Christ's spirit to swing the balance the other 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 37 

way, the change will be sudden and the 
world transformed. 

"Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye 
know not when the time is." "Blessed is 
that servant whom His Lord when he Com- 
eth shall find so doing." "Of a truth I say 
unto you, that he will make him ruler over 
all that he hath." 



CHAPTER V. 

"Be ye therefore perfect even as your 
Father which is in Heaven is perfect." 

Man is an epitome of the universe, a 
little world, with a three-fold nature corres- 
ponding to the triune nature of God himself. 
Each individual is endowed with a govern- 
ing power, a conscious mind and will of its 
own, expressing itself on a spiritual and 
physical plane. 

Christ proved to the world that the 
Father could manifest himself as life per- 
fected on earth. He, representing the com- 
ing race, is a model of what redeemed 
humanity shall be when, by substituting the 
higher for the lower, it shall have incarnated 
the whole spirit of God as He expresses him- 
self in this world; and when, conscious of its 
spiritual unity and its inheritance as child- 
ren all of one Father, the spirit of God in 
man shall have triumphed over the spirit of 
evil, the centrifugal forces shall have super- 
seded the centripetal, so that love of others 
shall replace love of self. 

We do not expect to attain individual 
perfection immediately; we judge we will 
need untold ages of active life on earth and 
perhaps beyond, learning lessons, acquiring 
knowledge, developing spiritual powers un- 
dreamed of, before we reach this goal and 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 39 

become perfect even as the "Father in 
Heaven is perfect;" but Christ proclaimed a 
new era at hand, whenever we are willing 
to take up the cross and follow his guidance, 
when we shall truly take His "yoke" upon 
us and learn of Him. We shall not attain 
this heaven on earth until we sacrifice the 
old life and free ourselves from its chains, 
and surely the teaching is clear that this 
sacrifice w T ill be demanded of every one indi- 
vidually in order to enter the new kingdom. 

The Heaven proclaimed by the prophets 
of old and by Christ is to be realized on this 
earth, by the incarnation of God's spirit in 
the souls of men; but evidently the Father 
does not plan to give us the kingdom until 
we are of age and able to govern ourselves 
with justice and equity. The spiritual king- 
dom will usher in the material, for there can 
be no heaven without until it is within, with 
all capacities expanded for its appreciation 
and enjoyment. We apprehend that each 
individual must travel far before reaching 
even the present circumference of knowl- 
edge, and may well believe that heaven itself 
will grow with our increasing capacity to 
hold and manifest life. 

The fact that we know better than we do, 
and always have heights ahead to which we 
aspire, is a promise in itself of infinite future 
possibilities and of the approximate attain- 
ment of the present ideal in spite of the 
limitations and restrictions preventing its 



40 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

fulfillment now. While all are conscious of 
tendencies within which we would outgrow, 
and of limitations without from which we 
would be free, perhaps there is no one but 
feels within himself possibilities beyond the 
power of expressing in a life time. The 
progress of the world has been dependent 
upon man's persistent desire to be better and 
to do better, and we need not fear that the 
removal of an external system of competi- 
tion w T ill dim this high and holy aspiration, 
which if more intelligently encouraged 
might bring to immediate fruition the di- 
vine possibilities latent in each soul, and 
further the ultimate aim of all attainment — 
perfection. Only by looking for the divine 
spark within can we follow the light which 
will lead from glory to glory. 

We shall have to discover the spiritual 
potentialities within ourselves and reverence 
our own soul's vision as superior to the 
traditional and theoretical dogma of another 
day. When we apprehend that success can 
be measured only by the soul's growth we 
shall be willing to reject the motives and 
ambitions of the past to attain this "pearl 
of great price" — this spiritual and material 
world of harmony and beauty and purity. 
We are to-day demonstrating the fact that 
selfishness is suicidal, that the only solution 
of the world's problems lies in a new nature 
and a changed motive, actuated and mate- 
rialized. When human beings shall in truth 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 41 

be inspired by the Holy Ghost they will not 
be troubled about the relative value of tradi- 
tional faiths or beliefs, rituals, creeds, or 
dogmas. While ceremonial worship has 
been sanctioned in days when men were 
unwilling to trust their own knowledge of 
God, and needed the material proof of His 
existence as revealed to them through the 
eyes of seers and prophets, yet by gradually 
learning to see through their own eyes, they 
will be ready finally to worship "in spirit 
and in truth." John visioned the city with 
"no temple therein." The knowledge of 
God's spiritual presence will be sufficient. 

If those who claim to be animated by the 
spirit of Christ to-day cannot seal their unity 
and spiritual reality as children of one 
Father, how can they expect to influence a 
distracted world in its search for interna- 
tional peace and harmony? However w r e 
believe the denominational screen set up in 
the past and separating those who would 
fain be united to-day will be removed. We 
already feel the urge toward spiritual unity 
and have faith in its materialization. By 
reuniting in true catholicity of spirit the 
severed body of Christ and acknowledging 
Him only as its head, it might yet be possible 
for the church of God to fulfill its mission in 
a day when the world needs a performance 
as well as a precept. With open eyes we 
cannot fail to see that Christ's message is 
practical and socialistic as well as individual- 



42 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

istic. By practicing the charity we recog- 
nize as an outstanding virtue of our religion, 
it would be possible to effect a spiritual 
unity and harmony, expressed as co-opera- 
tion on a vast scale, while acknowledging 
personal freedom and diversity of talent. 
"For the body is not one member, but many. 
Ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
particular." 

We are bidden to make disciples of the 
nations, and the world kingdom promised 
is a government binding all in love. Though 
the old writers looked forward to this day 
of the fulfillment of prophecy as the goal of 
life, there is nothing in the word nor in our 
knowledge of God's ways which would indi- 
cate that the millennium is the ultimate "end 
of the world" for man. It is merely acquir- 
ing the inheritance anticipated from the be- 
ginning. Christ said it was the "Father's 
good pleasure to give us the kingdom," and 
it appears that His mission was most espec- 
ially to show us the way to its attainment. 
It is to be assumed that man himself will 
have to set the kingdom in order, and well 
may we believe it will take a thousand years 
to do so; but as he will have reached his 
majority and been educated and trained for 
this destiny through the ages, we cannot but 
believe he will be ready to meet his every 
obligation with wonderful resourcefulness. 
One might suppose that composite man to- 
day, with his God-given powers and his 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 43 

genius for organization would be equal to 
the task. Certainly he will be when greed 
and selfishness are eliminated. This, how- 
ever, will be labor causing such travail as 
the world has never known. 

Nevertheless the day of miracles is not 
past. One of the most sublime changes in 
nature is that by which the gorgeous butter- 
fly is evolved from an imprisoned chrysalis. 
By just such a sudden transformation may 
the darkned world, when it holds the spirit- 
ual kingdom potentially, break the shackles 
which bind it and find joyful freedom in 
God's sunlight. When the world metamor- 
phosis is complete and we breathe the free 
air of that day, we shall find that we had 
been living in dark ages indeed. 

The glories of that time, when there will 
be "no sorrow nor crying nor any more 
pain," when the "former things are passed 
away" and He that sits on the throne shall 
say: "Behold I make all things new" is even 
now beyond our wildest dreams. But let us 
remember that these are all earthly prom- 
ises. The latest revelation given us in the 
Apocalypse is surely of this material world 
as it shall be when "the kings of the earth 
shall bring their glory and honor" into the 
new city, for even the meek to inherit; 
though we are told that "there shall in no 
wise enter into it anything that defileth, 
neither whatsoever worketh abomination or 
maketh a lie." 



44 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 

Yes, the material advantages will accom- 
pany the spiritual reality. Every truth dis- 
covered through the ages, every advance of 
science with its application to man's needs 
will contribute to the splendor of that life. 
Earth's resources will be developed further 
for the betterment of man's physical con- 
dition with the accompanying enlargement 
and enrichment of his immortal soul. The 
object of existence will be soul development 
and every phase of life will assist in a reali- 
zation of this ideal. Physical life will be 
sustained without "thought for the morrow" 
for by living each day in its fullness we shall 
be preparing for the morrow. 

Christ said: "Seek ye first the Kingdom 
of Heaven and all these things shall be added 
unto you." Let us pray: "Thy Kingdom 
come, Thy will be done, on earth." 



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